A World That's Celebrating
by Time Traveling Teacup
Summary: A few years after the end of Goliath, Alek and Deryn are happy working for the Zoological Society. But on one seemingly calm evening, two small things change their lives forever...for the better. Deryn never knew everything could change so fast. Alek/Deryn fluff. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my first fic! Please review. Constructive criticism appreciated.


It fell quiet, and Deryn and Alek leaned against the balcony of their hotel room, looking out at the bright city of Vienna. Summer was setting in; Deryn could see the summer constellations, huge beasties made of stars. They danced on the horizon, faded from the light of the city. When she was a wee lass, Da had told her all the stories of the stars, like Tokyo, the elephantine whose trumpeting had warned a village of a tsunami saved its people, or the one about the Clanker warrior who chased a tigeresque across the sky in dizzy circles.

It was quieter than normal in the bustling city, except for a distant rumbling. Deryn supposed she should have found it curious, but at the moment she was merely calm and content. For once there was time for a night of nothing but her and Alek, the comfortable lounge chairs (that they'd abandoned, for the moment) and tall glasses of the Turkish coffee Lillit had taught them how to make. They'd been kept pretty busy with diplomatic missions for the Society the past couple days, so it was nice to finally relax.

The rumbling grew slightly louder. Alek looked at her.

"Deryn?"

"Aye?"

"The war is over."

"_WHAT?!_" Deryn spluttered, shattering the calm silence. Alek smirked.

If Deryn Sharp had ever done a spit-take in her life, she would have then. As it was, she nearly choked on her drink that she'd just taken a sip of. She'd heard the words, but he'd said them so calmly, like remarking on the day's weather, he couldn't possibly mean it. She would've thought Alek was joking with her.

But his rapidly growing smile told the real story.

"The war is…" she muttered, staring at him.

"Done with. That meeting I attended earlier? It wasn't just meant for planning for peace. It was the real thing. A neutral peace treaty was signed by both sides. Europe…" he paused, emotion getting the better of him, " The _world_ has finally found peace."

Suddenly Deryn grinned back.

"But that was this morning!" she said teasingly, stepping closer to him, "Did you know this whole time and not tell me, you daftie?" She closed the space between them, kissing him, with her fingers threading through his hair. That jittery feeling returned to her, like a box of beasties all bouncing around in her gut. She heard the distant rumbling again, and thought it sort of sounded like music.

"You did it." She said quietly, and not without a squick of pride.

"It wasn't _my_ doing." Alek replied.

"Oh, all those fancy-boots diplomats were just squabbling for their own interests. Seems to me you were the only one really vying for completely equal peace." Deryn said.

He shook his head incredulously. "A world at peace again." Alek said. "This is going to change everything."

Deryn could hardly believe it herself. The last few years of her life had been consumed with the war in some form or another: from fighting the Clankers on the Leviathan to trying to stop the fighting with the Society.

"For quite the better, I'd think." She whispered, gripping his hands tighter. "It's barking perfect, isn't it?"

"Almost" Alek replied. He stepped back from her embrace and took a deep breath.

"All my life I've thought Providence has been guiding me towards ending the war. And although that's happened now, I was wrong. Destiny doesn't have to be anything so grand. I used to think…I used to think I only found myself on the Leviathan by mistake, or for the cause of sovereignty. But now I know… Fate brought me there to fall in love with you."

Deryn looked up, surprised. She didn't know what to say. There was a thought tickling at the back of her mind, but she didn't know what it was. The daft boy _sounded_ like he had rehearsed a speech, but why? There was something happening, something obvious that he was saying that Deryn didn't realize…

Alek smiled. He looked down and took a small nondescript black box out of his pocket.

"Guess I better do this properly, huh?" he said, and lowered to one knee.

Deryn's mind and heartbeat were racing. She tried to process this development, but her thoughts felt more tangled than a box of rigger's cable.

"Alek…" she said, a bit breathlessly. She didn't know if the rhythm she heard was drums in the distance, or her own pulse thundering in her ears.

"Maybe it would have been crazy to say, and maybe in some ways it still is, but I believe that we're meant to be together, Deryn. You're the most beautiful, mad, brilliant person I've ever met, and I don't think there could be anyone I'd rather spend the rest of my life with."

He took her hand. Deryn noticed his hands were shaking as much as hers were.

"Deryn Sharp."

He looked up at her. Time seemed to freeze.

"Will you marry me?"

So many thoughts exploded into Deryn's mind all at once. Suddenly, it was very loud inside her skull.

"_Barking Spiders…"_ she whispered, tugging on Alek's hand so he stood up, and for a fraction of a second he was terrified before she grinned as wide as her face would allow and said, "Absolutely," and kissed him deeply.

She could feel him relax, the tension disappearing from his muscles as he leaned up against her. She hugged him tightly, hardly believing what had just happened, but she pulled away for a moment to ask a question that just occurred to her.

"Were you really worried I'd say no, you ninny?" she whispered.

Alek blushed. "Well I… I didn't know if you'd ever want to get married, really. I mean, I didn't know if you'd see it as settling down…"

"It doesn't have to mean that." She said.

"No." he agreed " I don't know. I guess it just seemed like… something…normal people…would do." He managed awkwardly. Deryn was highly amused.

'What exactly do you mean by that?" she asked.

"Well, we're hardly an average couple." He said in a low voice. Deryn smiled.

"I guess not."

They both grinned at each other like idiots for a moment before Alek shifted.

"Blisters, I nearly forgot…" he said, picking up the black box again. He opened it, and Deryn gasped. She wasn't normally one to be wowed by fancy jewelry, but this was unlike anything she'd ever seen. The ring was a plain band. Made out of something clear, under which she could see the tiniest gears she'd ever seen turned by…turned by what looked like a tiny little fabricated thing. It was _moving_. It was a small, clear, plantlike fab, no bigger than her pinkie nail, and it had little tendril vines that slowly turned the tiny gears and made the whole ring sparkle. Deryn had never seen anything like it, even in Japan and America, where both Darwinist and Clanker technologies were about, did they ever combine into one thing, one living machine, quite like this. She supposed that made a lot of barking sense, given what this particular ring was for.

"Barking Spiders, Alek, but this is amazing!" she said. Deryn looked up, for once not even pretending to not be impressed.

"Dr. Barlow thought you'd like my design." He said.

"Your…barking spiders, did you _make_ this, Alek?" Deryn said, staring at him incredulously as he blew her mind for what felt like the millionth time that evening.

"Well, I had help." He said modestly. "Dr. Barlow did most of the fabricating, and I made the machine part."

Deryn stared wordlessly at the sparkling ring on her finger. This was made just for her. From Alek.

_My barking _fiancé_, now_. She thought. _Blisters._

She'd never felt more like a proper girl since joining the service.

Suddenly they both noticed the sound of music, drums and trumpets, growing closer and louder from down on the street below their balcony. Alek went to the edge of the balcony and Deryn followed him.

"Look," he said, pointing down the street, "Just there."

Deryn saw the approaching parade, with marching bands and shining lights and dancers in sparkly costumes.

"The whole city is celebrating tonight, for the end of the war. Peace in our time." Alek said grandly, turning towards her and taking her hand. "Want to go join them?"

She grinned. "You bet." Then she hesitated, as an idea came to her. "Just…one minute. Let me get ready."

He just nodded as she slipped back inside and dashed off to their bedroom. She opened her closet, digging deep to the very back, looking for one thing in particular. She thanked her past self for saving one of the dresses she used to have to wear. Although most of the Zoological society knew her secret now, she still dressed in shirts and trousers because they were so much more practical, and she honestly didn't understand why anyone would force _themselves_ in corsets and frills. Dr. Barlow used to insist that Deryn wore dresses to fancy Society parties, so Deryn still had one. (Lately Barlow had given that struggle up, and allowed her to wear a suit instead, much to the chagrin of other Society members.)

Deryn slipped into the one dress she had left, a flapper style one that she'd gotten for a particularly memorable New Year's party a few years ago. She wondered what Alek's reaction would be; she hadn't worn a dress in over two years, now.

She went out with Alek all the time. And while they had plenty of fun, there was only one problem with it as far as Deryn could see. They couldn't snog in public. (Sometimes they did anyway, and got kicked out of restaurants before they could explain, but that's another story.)(Much to Alek's dismay, Deryn also did it on purpose once or twice, because she found other people's looks of horror _amusing_. But that got old quickly.) As long as Deryn dressed as she normally did, she looked like Dylan to the public, and this had some consequences. Deryn decided she didn't want to deal with that, not on this night.

She stepped out into the hall where Alek was waiting. He was astonished. She savored the look of surprise on his face.

"You…you look beautiful," he said, turning red. " But you didn't have to..."

"I know I didn't."she said, cutting him off, "But I thought if I did… well…" she took a deep breath, blushing unexpectedly. "I thought we could have, you know, a _proper_ date, if I looked like a girl."

"Oh." He said, realizing what she meant. Surprised, he asked quietly, "You'd do that?"

She nodded.

"I… I don't know what to say. I'm flattered." Alek said.

"Aye, and you barking should be." Deryn said, grinning cheekily. She took his hand and headed for the door, so they could go out and join the festivities.

After all, the whole world was celebrating.


End file.
